The Post Office
by lisarazmotte
Summary: A little short story I wrote a while ago : how did Harry end up receiving a letter in an envelop covered in stamps ? Maybe George was a little distracted when he went to the Post Office ;)


Ottery St Catchpole. The Weasleys barely ever set foot in the village, since it was, after all, mainly populated by muggles. However, there are times when going into a muggle shop seemed like the best solution. When you have to buy stamps to send a letter to the very strict guardians of one of your wizard friends, for instance.

That morning, Molly had found out about the skiving snackboxes in Fred and George's bedroom. She was furious, and she had yelled for a long time, even longer than the time they had brought back Harry with the flying car. The twins had protested, saying that she could destroy their goods as much as she wanted, but they were still firmly serious about opening a joke shop. This declaration had enraged their mother, and had even persuaded their father into raising his voice.

This is how, a few hours later in this morning of August, George Weasley was walking towards Ottery St Catchpole - alone, as Fred had been punished with the task of de-gnoming the garden. He was to bring back everything his mother needed to send a proper letter to the Dursleys, asking permission to take Harry to the Quidditch World Cup.

George crossed the village and, spotting a building with a red sign that said « post office », stepped in. A bell rang as he got past the door. He had entered a strange little shop : a few small watercolours were hanging on the walls, and the subjects were standing very still. A pot plant was on the counter, and a red box hung from it, which utility, George didn't know. Behind the counter was seated a girl who must have been around 17 or 18 years old. She had long curly blond hair that surrounded her face, and she looked up and smiled at Goerge when the bell rang.

"Hello, may I help you ?"

"Er – I need everything to write to mugg- to a fríend."

"Alright, I'm going to get you stamps and envelopes," she answered, still smiling at him.

She disappeared in the backroom and George started meddling with the muggle coins his mother had given him, small circular coins with the face of the Queen of England. He suddenly started wondering how he was going to be able to give her the right amount of money, since he had no idea how muggle money worked, and didn't even know the name of the different coins. Panicking a little, he tried to remember what his mother had told him while handing him the money. He hadn't been listening, too busy silently complaining about his parents narrow-mindedness about his future !

He felt bad, but didn't have more time to feel sorry, because the sales assistant came back to the counter with envelopes and a stack of stamps in her hands.

"How many stamps do you need ?"

"Er – hang on," answered George, thinking feverishly while pretending to look through his wallet. If he asked her for a precise number of stamps, and didn't have enough money, he would look stupid, and he couldn't ask for the price, he didn't even know the coins' value !

The girl, probably wishing to lighten the atmosphere, started talking :

"So – Do you live here ?"

George looked up from his wallet. She was pretty, this girl. He answered :

"Yes, well, not exactly, we live in a small house about one kilometer from here, up the hills."

"All right, she said. I'd never seen you here before, that's why I was curious."

She had a cute smile, and a nice voice.

"Oh, we rarely come into the village. Today is kind of special. Yes, you could say it's special," he said, now smiling back at her, in a very good way.

She blushed a little. He had completely forgotten about the coins, the envelopes, the stamps. Because this girl, she was really pretty, and he didn't really want to look away and get back to his money problems.

"Do _you_ live here ?"

"Yes, well, during the year I'm off to school in London, but I'm back here for the summer holidays."

"Same as me, back here for the summer."

"Oh, where do you go to school ?"

"Er – Scotland."

She looked puzzled by his answer, and George quickly came back to the matter that interested him the most :

"So – are you by any chance free tonight ? Maybe we could get together…?"

"Oh… Sure, all right !"

She seemed delighted, and George kept smiling at her

"So – How many stamps then ?"

Now that he had asked her out, George didn't want to appear stupid. Still looking directly into her clear blue eyes, he distractedly took out all of the coins from the wallet and answered :

"Give me for all of this please !"

She seemed surprised, but complied anyway and started to count the coins. She ended up giving him the whole stack of stamp, and went back to get some more.

"George, I'm talking to you !" His mother said, exasperated.

"Er, what ?" He asked, absentmindedly. He was still thinking about the pretty muggle from the post office, and what they could do that evening.

"Are you sure that I need to put all of the stamps on the envelope ?"

"Yes, I'm sure !"


End file.
